Apart from gold plated cables avoiding/minimizing oxidation, I wouldn't give much credit to all that oxygen-free, what-have-you audiophile bullshit that will only disguise the fact that cheaper cables (around a tenner) with the afore-mentioned layer of <10-karat gold (relatively cheap BTW) will suffice.

Re: need good cable for line out ->amply

What reminds me that I've been the happy owner of one of those el cheapo gold plated cables since I first bought it on the UK high street store (Richers Sounds) a good decade and a half ago. Pretty sure other folk might tell you theirs have gone a even higher mileage.

Re: need good cable for line out ->amply

I can whole heartedly reccomend uGreen. Thier cables are good quality and I have used them all over the place. And as has been said already, don't fall for all the audiophile 'super mega ultra oxygen free, 1million purity ultra gold' bull.

Re: need good cable for line out ->amply

With the exception of some exceptionally shoddily-made interconnects bought from Tandy (which shows you how long ago it was), I've never had a cable problem. I did spend a little extra on my speaker cables, to get a set with soldered-on* banana plugs instead of bare wire, but otherwise I don't use anything special.

Modern production techniques mean you can buy a well-made cable for very little these days.

*I used to have a soldering iron, so might have done the job myself (badly, no doubt), but I sat on it and snapped the handle. Not while it was plugged in, thankfully!

Re: need good cable for line out ->amply

If you live in the U.S. I recommend Monoprice. They sell good heavy-duty cables at low prices. (I always order more than one cable because I don't want to pay more for the shipping than I pay for the cables).

The cable/plug on the 3.5mm side is bulky so if space is tight, they also sell thinner, lighter-weight cables.

P.S.I don't know if gold makes any difference... I've probably had some corroded contacts, but they would have been very-old cables and you can just replace them. The jack/socket on the equipment-side isn't so easy to replace so it might be more important there, and it may help having gold on both sides of the contact. I'd say most of the time, bad contact is a mechanical problem (a broken or worn-out connector, or a wire being broken coming un-soldered from repeated bending/stressing).

Conductivity/resistance simply isn't an issue (unless the cable is broken). Resistance can be an issue with long speaker wires, but reducing resistance is simply a matter of using fatter wires. You don't need any exotic metals or special-expensive copper.

Re: need good cable for line out ->amply

I can whole heartedly reccomend uGreen. Thier cables are good quality and I have used them all over the place. And as has been said already, don't fall for all the audiophile 'super mega ultra oxygen free, 1million purity ultra gold' bull.

3.5? If you plug in and out all the time, then (mechanical) durability may be a question. I never had issues with Belkin (who have been around for > 30 years), except that companies that create fake reviews do annoy me. Years since that controversy though: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belkin#Criticism .

hi yes it should be kept mostly plugged , about any issues even with the products i listed ,they are cheap (the point is for this price i can't belive they gold "patinated"thanks

If you live in the U.S. I recommend Monoprice. They sell good heavy-duty cables at low prices. (I always order more than one cable because I don't want to pay more for the shipping than I pay for the cables).

hi no ,i'm in europe but i can find on amazon europe , they cost like uGreen & Belkinthanks

Re: need good cable for line out ->amply

Unfortunately Monoprice have fallen from grace as far as I'm concerned. I got some of their USB-C cables, and they look great, but were so terrible at voltage dropping that I had to return them. Great customer service though, they just let me keep them instead and refunded. After that, engineers Nathan K and "USB vigilante" Benson Leung (who works at Google doing USB-C stuff) tested them properly and found the same thing, rating them very poorly.

And looking back, the Lightning cables I bought from them are also wonky, charging much slower (this was before MFi though IIRC). Their audio cables might be simpler and less prone to failure, but I just don't trust them anymore.

I used to really like Blue Jeans Cable, but I haven't bought from them in years, and they do specialize in A/V.

Re: need good cable for line out ->amply

I am amazed that stereo magazines still persist in joining the great cable scam, reinforcing the idea that spending $$$$$$$$'s on cables will transform sound. As has been pointed out, there are valid reasons why you may need to consider gauge for some cables. Personally I do think it is worth paying for cables with decent connectors and insulation but that is about durability and reliability, not sound quality and the cost uplift is trivial. I've found Belkin cables to be more than adequate, the Belkin cables I've bought have never had to be replaced and have been good, solid cables bought for modest cost.I do wonder how some hifi journalists can sleep at night, one of the HiFi mags on sale in the UK this month reviews a £500 power cable and recommends it, yes the thing that comes free of charge with electrical equipment with a plug at one end and connector into the equipment at the other end of a short cable. Not once have I ever needed to replace one of the cables that has been supplied with equipment, in fact I've accumulated the things as I have an awful habit of keeping the cables when I throw out kettles and what not when they die. The idea that this item can transform sound is ludicrous, and the idea that paying £500 for it is completely bonkers yet magazines are still not only swallowing this nonsense but have the nerve to recommend them to readers. These people must be shameless.

Re: need good cable for line out ->amply

I'm firmly on board with some form of gold plating for connectors. Just this last week I've been re-assembling my stereo (long story having to do with the speakers needing to be refurbished, and swapping amplifiers - plus, it's a bi-amped system) and found several instances of poor connectivity between plugs and jacks. In every case it's been a cheap un-plated steel connector with some oxidation; surprisingly, the effect has ranged from "no signal" to a very subtle loss of level. In one case, re-seating the plug restored level for a while, then it started to slowly drop again. Replacing all of them with my quality cables which were in storage resolved the issues. Gold-on-gold plus a drop of Deoxit on the contact surfaces seems to be very stable over time.

I note that in no case did the connection exhibit a degradation of quality - just level. At first, in each of the instances, I thought there was a pot misadjusted (I am setting levels as part of the process) or a piece of equipment misbehaving/broken, but it was always a bad cable.

I am interested in current good values for cables too, so any recommendations are welcomed. My current set of quality interconnects is an interesting mix. Oddly, Rat Shack did at one time sell a line of reasonably-priced gold plated cables (or maybe only some stores did) that were bargains when you caught them on closeout. I have several of those, and since they have the screw-on shells I was able to open them and verify that they're reasonably rugged inside. They also have the little coil spring thingies which help keep the cable from being bent sharply at the shell, and most usefully, a little O-ring on each channel color-coding them as to left or right. I've never had a problem with these.

My other cables are (don't laugh) Monsters, which again I found on closeout somewhere at an acceptable price. They have very solid metal shells, color-coded, and their cable is a little less stiff than the usual. They also seem to fit snugly but aren't impossible to seat/remove, unlike the Rat Shack cables which are a little on the tight side. I barely paid more for them than for a cheap house brand cable, so it seemed a safe bet. Again, they've worked fine for years.

I personally put Belkin in the same category as Monster and Mogami - modest construction and hideously overpriced. Their computer cables are often displayed prominently in stores around here, and they are invariably 3x or more the cost of a well-made bargain cable. I boycott them just based on their obscene profit margin.

Re: need good cable for line out ->amply

but may i know which cable do you use ? and may i ask you a silly question about these cheap cable like belkin or ugreen or othersthey suppress the noise more then normal cheap cable more noisy, but do they alter the audio ?i mean do these cheap cable sound more flat or opaque compared to the noisy cable?i don't talk about 99.9 copper cable

Re: need good cable for line out ->amply

To me the major issue with most cables, particularly cheap ones is how the wire is connected to the connector. I've seen quite a few which if you cut the plastic sheath away, you'd find the wire just squeezed between tabs on the connector, no solder, no airtight insulation displacement joint. Copper wire in non-copper connectors that way is a recipe for bad connections and failure. That is something that can mess up your sound, not the high priced oxygen free, ultra pricey wire. Gold plating there will help, but a properly soldered connection will be better.

BTW, take a look at how the wires in most inexpensive clip leads are attached to the clips. You'll probably want to get out your soldering iron. Even car battery jumper cables have that issue.

So the mechanical construction is probably more important than the electrical characteristics.

Speaker wire from power amplifiers to speakers (at least for high power speakers) needs to be relatively heavy gauge, and should be kept as short as possible. That 22 gauge wire won't work well at all. But you certainly don't need the $100 per foot solid silver stuff...

Re: need good cable for line out ->amply

To me the major issue with most cables, particularly cheap ones is how the wire is connected to the connector. I've seen quite a few which if you cut the plastic sheath away, you'd find the wire just squeezed between tabs on the connector, no solder, no airtight insulation displacement joint

A properly crimped termination is perfectly acceptable and reliable. Crimped terminations are commonly used in aerospace and medical applications.

Re: need good cable for line out ->amply

To me the major issue with most cables, particularly cheap ones is how the wire is connected to the connector. I've seen quite a few which if you cut the plastic sheath away, you'd find the wire just squeezed between tabs on the connector, no solder, no airtight insulation displacement joint

A properly crimped termination is perfectly acceptable and reliable. Crimped terminations are commonly used in aerospace and medical applications.

It is also very common for home wiring. All the lighting in my garage is crimped, and thats been running fine for decades. Solder gives you a lower resistance per unit of wire, but if you cold weld enough metal, a crimp can be as good or better.

Re: need good cable for line out ->amply

Properly crimped connections, and I've used many thousands in my career, are fine, they are an airtight connection. Generally more reliable than soldering. Squeezing the wire between two thin tabs bent over with pliers on the connector is not good. that is not a crimp. The only alternative in that case is probably solder.

And some crimped connections are much more reliable than others. Screw Machine manufactured pins tend to be more reliable than the stamped ones, and much more expensive. And using stamped (or screw machine) pins without the correct crimp tool and the wire gauge they were designed for will probably sooner or later result in failure

One worthwhile first level test is the "yank test". If you can pull the wire out of the terminal, it probably wasn't crimped properly. Obviously you can yank harder on 14 gauge wire than 26. And some IDC connectors will provide an acceptable electrical connection but are not particularly mechanically secure.

It used to be a joke with some basis in reality that the cheapest clip leads sold by Radio Shack would often fail before being removed from the plastic bag. I certainly had quite a few that would not conduct electricity.

Re: need good cable for line out ->amply

To me the major issue with most cables, particularly cheap ones is how the wire is connected to the connector. I've seen quite a few which if you cut the plastic sheath away, you'd find the wire just squeezed between tabs on the connector, no solder, no airtight insulation displacement joint

A properly crimped termination is perfectly acceptable and reliable. Crimped terminations are commonly used in aerospace and medical applications.

If by crimped, one means crimped by a pair of pliers, then crimped connections are generally crap and should be upgraded to solder.

If by crimped, one means crimped by means of a swaging machine with a heavy flywheel and a 1 horsepower motor, then the metal interface is going to be cold-welded and a good weld is generally preferred over solder due to the absence of any other metals.

The best test of a joining methodology is to take the joint apart and look for evidence of cold welding. This is destructive, but if you want a omelet you gotta break eggs. The pull test that has been suggested is second best, non-destructive and beats no testing at all.

There is a third form of crimping that involves a specially made knife edge that cuts into the wire, and is generally used in conjunction with a silicon grease coating to slow or eliminate moisture intrusion and corrosion. Our old copper-based phone system had jillions of these and they clearly did the job.

You can still buy this silicon-filled crimp or IEC connectors and they are good for signals and low current applications. For example, I used them for years to replace fans in computer power supplies in the field where soldering was impractical, the current levels were small, but reliability in an environment with heat and vibration was important. They could be crimped pretty casually with pliers or failing that, just gnashing down on them with the canine teeth.

Re: need good cable for line out ->amply

Since I'm in the industry, Lemo, Canon, and ARINC connectors are all crimped using a proper crimping tool. Depending on the equipment the signal path has constant and then linear attenuation at a knee-frequency of around 6GHz. Connectors for higher frequencies than that, or when attenuation is a big issue from around 3GHz onwards, welding is used, which is usually ultrasonic welding, or induced HF element welding. Properly crimped connectors are used for signal paths up to 10GHz at no problems.

Above that, connecting antennas for 20-24GHz inter-satellite communication ranges, no connectors are used, instead antennas are directly manufacured into chip carriers, or in a CoG or CoB device. They are essentially part of the chip decoding the signal.

Above that, λ is so short, that using antennas becomes nonsensical, as the antenna has the length of larger nano-fibers, such that special spray-on or grown crystals are used as antennae on conductive substrates. Above that, we're getting into visible light territory, where EM wave are received by antennas having the length of molecules and some larger atoms, we call them light sensors.

On the other end, the lower you get in frequency, the less of an issue that becomes. Almost all welds, crimps, solder joins or splices (for instance a Western-Union-Splice), will have a far lower attenuation than the actual connector interface. If you wanna see a shitty connector being widely used in relative high frequency applications, look no further than the 8p8c modular connector, also often called "RJ 45" or "western connector", widely used in the GHz ranges of gigabit networks.If you wanna have a look at a very good connector used in the ranges of radar equipment, but also lab test gear, as well as sensors in scientific experiments, and for radio astronomy, have a look at the APC-7 connector. They're very expensive, etc. but they are about the most reliable and best to handle HF connectors, I've ever used.

I never understood why high-end manufacturers of the "special kind" never insist on connectors like these: https://intra28.lemo.com/PartSearch?app=audio-video&mat=&ref=&lang=en These connectors are from the Lemo range of connectors used in broadcasting. They have a very high band pass, are very expensive, but they're actually not quackery. Most of the money goes to the guarantee, that they are reliable, etc.